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ADAMS, Francis Ottiwell

THIRD REPORT BY MR. ADAMS ON SILK CULTURE IN JAPAN, DATED AUGUST 10, 1

1871. Item #87353

ADAMS, F. O. [Francis Ottiwell]. THIRD REPORT BY MR. ADAMS ON SILK CULTURE IN JAPAN, DATED AUGUST 10, 1870. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. London: Printed by Harrison and Sons, 1871. At the head of t.p. is printed "JAPAN. No. 1 (1871)" and at the bottom edge [C.--243] and "Price 2s. 6d." This was first published at the "Japan Mail" Office, Yokohama, in 1870. 9 lithographic plates, of which two are in color and three are folding. Two of the folding plates are maps: a map of the `Silk Districts of Japan' and a general map of Japan. 16 pp. Folio, side-sewn, extracted from a bound volume. 32 x 20.5 cm (12.5 by 8 in). Text leaves are very lightly age-toned at edges, with some showing occasional bits of scant foxing; but it is clean and crisp overall. Housed in a light brown cloth portfolio with ribbon ties, and a gilt-lettered, dark brown morocco label on upper board. Near fine. F. O. Adams was Secretary to the British Legation in Yokohama. In the summer of 1869, he made the first of his three tours of the silk producing districts of Japan. Although one of the folding maps indicates with two colored lines the routes that Adams followed on his 1869 and 1870 tours, this report details his second tour during the months of June and July 1870. It began and ended in Yedo and extended over 600 miles, travelling through the provinces of Bushiu, Shinshiu. Joshui, and Echigo, as far as Niigata, with several stops along the way. Smith was accompanied by Matsume Gonroku and two others. The purpose of their tour appears to have been the investigation of the various methods of silk-culture throughout the silk districts with a view to identifying those that achieve the highest yield and the best quality, the identification and treatment of a variety of diseases that are common to silkworms, and the examination of silk reeling techniques with the idea of introducing European machinery to improve the quality of the finished product. Besides illustrations of mulberry leaves, other plates show a Yamam-mai basket cage, methods of silk reeling at Yama-mai and Echigo, and a magnanerie (a silkworm house) at Shimamura.